31 May 2009

I was a little sickly last week...but the drugs are working...Saturday was the H.O.'s birthday, so I decided to stay around the house and watch #2 while she and #1 went to pick strawberries. Fresh-from-the-field strawberries taste GOOD!!! Anyway, I rode the trainer for 70 minutes with 55 minutes @ 90%. It actually felt pretty good. I got a good sweat, watched the Giro and finished a good workout...all in a little more than an hour.This morning, Doog lamed out, so I left early and went out solo. We ate at Pasta Fresca last night for B-Day dinner and the heavy pasta and bread laid like the proverbial lump in my gullet. I left the house feeling poorly, at best. The first 30 minutes was a struggle but everything sort of loosened up and the speed became easier to maintain. I made zero effort to ride hard this morning but still managed 33 kmh avg. for my two hour jaunt.Watching the final Giro TT on the intarwebs...then going down to the ManHole(tm) to do some much needed maintenance to the bikes...then watching the NASCAR race...full day right here!

29 May 2009

Carbon, light and supposed to be good for your twig and berries, but how in The Wide, Wide World of Sports can you ride this thing w/o smashing your junk in the giant chasm? AND the damn thing is $550!!!

Feeling better...high dose anti-biotics work well...going to ride the trainer tomorrow morning and MAYBE the IL Prof ride (if there is one) on Sunday...

27 May 2009

So, I started feeling bad Sunday night. I ride solo on Monday and it was a struggle. Didn't feel like messing with the TNCWC last night, so I rode with Doog. We did a short cross bike loop and I just felt horrible the entire time.I woke up this morning with a ripping headache, a fever and a swollen face...WTF???????I went straight to the Doc this morning...Some kind of nasal/sinus infection it seems. Bloodwork was normal, so nothing systemic thankfully!Back on Anti-biotics for another 10 days! They must think I'm a horse, 'cause the pills are GD huge. I also got a shot in my hiney. Grown man or not, that shit just plain stung!Don't know about riding for the next few days...maybe just spinning on the trainer to keep the legs going around.As for the TNCWC, it was small again last night. The weather was threatening and the wind was blowing, so the group was small. Nowhere to hide...Don't know many of the details, but Coco won on his birthhday, so the PV streak remains in play.Love to chat more, but I feel like shite and am going to bed!

25 May 2009

Missed Saturday as the H.O. was working...Sunday morning, we met at the normal spot and did Il Prof's ride. We did a nice meandering loop around LR and out trough the Swamp. It was wet/dry/wet/dry/wet//dry...you get the idea. The pace was pretty good once we got out to the more open parts of the ride. The group stayed together and we had a pretty enjoyable ride. 90km in right @ 3 hours. I got home just in tim too! About 7 minutes after I walked in the door, the bottom fell out. It was a biblical rain for about an hour.This morning, I didn't even bother seeing if anyone wanted to ride, so I hooked up the cross rig and went out to get dirty. I rode for right at 2 hours and did a nice big, dirty loop of Columbia. It was pretty enjoyable, other than the humidity. It was a bit like riding in a pool. A couple of good days back to back. TNCWC tomorrow night...Time to watch the end of the Giro stage...Levi FTL! What a joke...

Yes, shocking...A good, big group rolled out right on time (another shock) on Thursday. We kind of farted around leaving the Fort and Doug still managed to hit pothole and destroy his front tire.Once on Ridge, the pace went up and stayed high all the way to the top of Elon.We gathered up and rode piano to Bunky's. They must have been frying something inside, 'cause it smelled like LOVE as we rolled past.The pace went up again and stayed pretty damn stiff all the way to the end of Airbase. The number of people taking pulls dwindled and then the number of people dwindled. I was in the complete wrong place in line going over the rise. I pulled through at the base and was followed through by Der Kaiser. He RAISED the pace up the bump and split the group into two sections. Once over, 3 of us bridged and the line started anew @ 45kmh+. This pace shot a few more out the back and we ended up with 6 at the 4 way stop. Dr. LP attacked through the stop sign and the 5 of us chased to bring him back before the sprint. We got him back @ 400 meters from the sign...RW jumped for it while the rest of us sat up.We gathered again and rode in together. No one even made an effort to raise the pace much past 40kmh.It was a good ride and easily the best Thursday ride of the year thus far. There were some definite efforts that were above threshold! I felt like crap when I left the house and gradually got better as the ride progressed. No lingering pain from my crash and felt like some form is beginning to trickle back.No ride Saturday as the H.O. has to work in Greenville, so I'm on MT duty. Ride tomorrow and Monday, regardless of the weather....

20 May 2009

Temps in the 60s and a stiff wind kept away a good number of folks. Der Kaiser rolled off the front and we let him go. A couple of guys bridged and they were AWAY! The main body of the group had enough HP to pull it back quickly, but the fact that` there were only 8 of us that would take hard pulls kind of killed the chase. I can't tell you how many little gaps I closed...at least 6 or 8...or how many times I would take a hard pull and trun my head to see people pulling over behind me. This gets a bit old after 45 minutes of it, so when the break, which numbered 7 at this point, was within 100m, I sat up and quit. RW jumped and chased his ass of to get across alone. The rest of the second group imploded. I'm glad RW got across alone, as the majority of the second group didn't deserve to make the split.We had a 'show up 15 minutes late and attack' violation again last night too! On the last lap, the break got blown apart. Doog crossed the line alone with Coco and Gordon finishing 2nd and 4th. 10 straight weeks for the PV crew...Doog and Coco are easily 1-2 in the imaginary points standings.I actually flt pretty good last night too, considering it was my first ride after 4 days off the bike. My legs and back were tired from the weekend, but I could deal with it.No ride today, as much as I want to, as the H.O. is gone for the day/night for a business meeting. I'll be out Thursday though. Her work is really getting in the way of my riding!

18 May 2009

Man, I didn't even look at a bike this weekend...and I'm whipped! The H.O. and I took #1 to Beaufort to see the The Blue Angels. MCAS Beaufort puts on a hell of an Airshow, if you're so inclined.

We drove down Friday night and checked into our hotel. Saturday, we got up, had a good breakfast at Waffle House and headed to the MCAS. Looking back, we got there waaaay too early. The Blues started @ 3...we got there @ 11:30!

The static displays were pretty cool, for young and old alike! #1 liked crawling around inside the helicopters. I can say, it's pretty amazing to see the helos and planes up close. Some are bigger than than you'd expect, while others are shockingly small. Example? The Cobra attack helicopter could easily fit in a driveway! On the big side, the B-52 StratoFortess is HUGE!!! Oh, and the female pilot of the B-52 was SMOKING HOT!

Anywho, the Blues went on and were amazing! #1 couldn't quite wrap his head around all of it. Hell, I think I had a little trouble too. I burned up the motor drive on the D-SLR to the tune of 81 pictures! Got some crazy good shots too!

After the madness that was the exit of MCAS Beaufort (it took 90 minutes to get out!), we cleaned up and headed to dinner with some of my old friends. Maj. Mike "Felix" Juenger, his lovely wife and 2 of their 3 daughters. Mike was the XO of VMFA-115 @ MCAS Beaufort. In plain english, he was/is a card carrying, Certified Badass F-18 pilot! However cool you THINK you may be, he's cooler!

He's now in charge of EVERY F-18 in the Marines inventory. Shot Caller...

We had a great dinner @ Panini's in Beaufort and then let the kiddos run around at the park down on the riverfront. A trip for ice cream followed. We got back to the hotel @ 10pm.

Sunday, we rolled out late, had a bite at the continental breakfast bar and then headed to Hunting Island to stroll on the beach.

In the car and back home @ 4:30 yesterday. It was a non-stop weekend, but a whole lot of fun! If you need a short trip that will let you de-compress, Beaufort, SC is the ticket! Quiet, good restaurants, plenty of shopping, great State Park (Hunting Island), lots of history and nice folks!

15 May 2009

So a few of us met to do the Thursday ride. It's a ride that SHOULD be big, but I guess it's beneath the 'cool kids' and their 'training'.Anyway, we rolled out easy met Doog at the gate. Once on Ridge, the pace picked up and was steady and quick all the way down to Elon. I made the mistake of waiting for the stragglers and being forced to chase my nuts off to catch back on. Once back on, the group turned into a nice, fast, rolling paceline. Regardless of who was, or wasn't, there, the run down Airbase was fast and hard. Doog jacked the pace everytime he hit the front. Two folks attacked through the stop sign and took Doog with them towards the sprint. RK and I brought it back right before the sprint, in an effort to get SoPro to the front. She jumped waaay early and ended up getting nipped at the end.The efforts hurt, but felt good. My breathing wasn't the best last night, but I still needed the protracted work.It was a good ride.This weekend will be devoted to family time, as we are going to Beaufort for the AirShow @ the MCAS. The Blue Angels are there...#1's little melon is gonna 'asplode!

13 May 2009

#10...already?Last night was a beautiful evening. @75 degrees and a light wind blowing out of the East. Big group too...The race started off at a reasonable pace, but after 15 minutes, the breaks started and the pace went UP. Nothing really got going until right around the 30 minute mark when Bond and Doog got away and stayed out for a LONG time. Bringing them back split the main field a couple of times and required some real work. They didn't return to the fold until 4 to go. Once they were back, things settled down until the last lap. Again, my own inattention led me to be in a shit position going into the final turn. Well, that, and guys who have no reason to be towards the front on the last lap. I still made up quite a few positions until Mulo guttered me @ 300 meters. Thanks team-mate. I still finished 8th and felt human for the first time since my digger.Coco won pretty easily and PV put 6 in the top 10. The streak continues...Going back to the guys who shouldn't be in the front...If you missed the first 10/15/20 minuutes of the race, don't get involved. Stay in the back and roll around. Attacking and going off the front negates the work done by others who had the ability to show up on time.If you have missed laps, don't get involved in the break/chase/front of the group. Nothing is worse than a lapped rider pulling back into the front and getting in the way when the pace goes up again. Example? The dumbass on the red Torelli who missed AT LEAST 6 laps last night, but always pulled into the top 10, only to create a gap when the pace ramped up. Oh, he couldn't handle his bike for shit either.I also understand everyone's innate need to ride near the front, but don't rush the front when the pace slows down. Again, all this does is create gaps when the pace goes back up.Believe me, I realize that I'm not the strongest guy out there and I accept that fact. I also know my limitations and practice what I preach. If any of what I said above offends any of you, maybe it should.

10 May 2009

WTF? Let's ease into the whole heat thing...please?Yesterday, Coco, Mulo, Doog and I left @ 8 and did a long loop. We ended up with right at 4 hours. Out through the flats and back through the hills. Why make it easy on yourself. I felt really good yesterday, even though I hadn't been in the saddle for that long in a great while. Crunchy back? Yes, I'll have that with a side of sore ass!This morning, we (same bunch minus Doog) met for 3 hours out through Calhoun County. It seems Doog is feeling under the weather. He was feeling well enough to go have beers and wings with Mulo last night though...curious...We figured, wholly incorrectly, that we'd go out that way and have a nice tailwind bringing us home. It wasn't a killer headwind, but it was enough to bring the speed down and start to suck by the end. I had a bad day today. Bad stomach...an extended stop at the gas station in Gaston...we'll leave it at that.7 hours on the bike this weekend. One good day, one iffy day, but good miles nonetheless!

07 May 2009

...and KNOWN dopers who sully the reputation of any sport.It's pretty widely known that major-league baseball players and NFL players are virtually all on some kind of PED. I mean c'mon, guys don't get to be 6'4" and 275 AND run a 4.7 40!!! Granted, people are getting bigger, but guys are putting on 40-50 pounds between college and the NFL...in 6 months!!! In baseball, you can look at certain guys and see that they're juicers. You don't get bigger and faster as you get older! It just doesn't work that way.The thing that really grinds my monkey is the fact that 'journalists' take time to bash cycling as a bunch of dopers because a few guys are rotten apples. I'm no apologist, never have been, but you cannot impune an entire sport because a VERY small percentage are doping asssholes. I was watching 'Real Sports w/Bryant Gumbel' not long ago and he basically called Lance Armstrong out for being a doper. Last I checked Mr. Gumbel, Lance has NEVER tested positive for ANYTHING!!! Do I thing he doped? Don't know...he has a lot to lose by testing positive for PEDs...more than some nobody from Kazakhstan who will go back to shoveling coal after his career.Yet, Mr. Gumbel defends these ball and stick playing assholes at every turn. In the NFL and MLB, there is no RANDOM testing. They don't show up unannounced, knock on your door @ 7 a.m., and ask you for urine, blood and hair...like they do in pro cycling.The testers for football and baseball CALL AHEAD to tell the clubhouse/locker-room that they're coming, usually days in advance, so space can be made to carry out the testing. Nothing like giving dopers 72 hours warning, eh? Manny Ramirez tested positive today and got a 50 game suspension. Sounds like a lot, but the season is 162 games. He'll be back on July 3rd!!! I'm sure he'll receive a hero's welcome too. Slap on the fucking wrist!!!In cycling, one positive test gets you two years and you have to pay a year's salary to the governing body!!! On average, pro cyclists get tested, randomly, once a month. Lance has been tested 26 times so far in '09!!! A little nutty...NFL and MLB players get tested, on average, 2x a year!!! And they bitch about it!!! Chickenshits!Mr. Gumbel made light of Armstrong's delay of a test, by 20 minutes, yet MLB and NFL get 72 hours or so? Oh, by the way, the 'delayed' Armstrong test was negative across the board, thank you very much.Hey Bryant, why don't you stick to what you know...which isn't cycling or drug-testing?!?!? Talk about your doped up baseball players and their falsified numbers (Hank Aaron is the real HR king!) or the walking examples of modern pharmaceutical science that NFL players have become.I'd be more than happy to go on HBO and debate Mr. Gumbel in his very own bully pulpit. I'd crush his nuts in a fine powder.

05 May 2009

The TNCWC went off tonight. The weather threatened, but never arrived...it was actually pretty nice. The group was small tonight, but there was still enough HP to keep it interesting. We started with @ 20 and ended with @ 15. The pace ebbed and flowed and the pace was a tick slower than usual, but not by much. It was almost like no one really wanted to race tonight...I know I was severely lacking in motivation. I think my admittedly poor diet over the last few days, in combination with the remnants of whatever funk the MTs gave me, led to heavy legs and a general feeling of malaise.Ken took out the sprint for the W. The PV streak lives.

It's been a solid month since my ROL Race SL wheels were delivered and I've ridden and raced them exclusively. I ordered them in the beginning of March and waited patiently for 4 weeks. ROL was/is in the process of moving to Austin, and Sean Lambert (the man who own the joint) kept me abreast of the progress. He gave me a delivery date and the wheels arrived exactly on that date. He called me, not the other way around. That's good customer service. Call him and talk about wheels...seriously, he'll talk to you for as long as you feel like staying on the phone.The Race SLs use ROL's own hubs, which are sourced from Taiwan, but appear to be faithful knock-offs of DT Swiss 240s. The spokes are DT Aerolites and the hoops are produced by Kinlin. Sean and his band of merry men (are there women working @ ROL?) handbuild each and every wheel to a high standard. They come out of the box dead true, round and tensioned evenly.No ceramics in the hubs, and they aren't needed. The quality of the ROL hubs is higher than a lot of hubs that cost as much as the entire Race SL wheelset. They are dead smooth and roll almost as long as my White Industries H1 hubset, which ain't exactly cheap.The wheels are stiff, but not to the point of being harsh. The high flange hubs, the 30mm deep hoops and the high tension of the DT Aerolite spokes all lend to this stiffness. I outfitted them with Vittoria Open Corsa CX rubber and Michelin Latex tubes...no point riding low quality tires on high quality wheels. The quality of the ride is very good as well, high dollar tires and tubes notwithstanding. No getting beat up on long rides with these wheels.They roll like a freight train and corner smoothly and progressively. Once a line is picked, there's not a lot of drama, and that's a good thing when bombing corners @ 40kmh+.I'm no lightweight, but even at 180 pounds, there's no flex when standing to climb or sprinting out of the saddle.I've had more wheels than I care to remember. These are keepers. They do everything well and weigh a very reasonable 1545 grams (stated weight is 1550). The bang for the buck is damn good too. $589 for the set! That's no typo folks. You cannot source the parts and have a similar set of wheels built for anywhere close to the cost of the Race SLs. Go ahead, try it...I'll give you links to the pieces if you'd like!Next on my list is a set of carbon tubies, and the first call I will make is to Sean @ ROL. You simply cannot go wrong with the product, the company or the man who builds and stands behind the wheels!

03 May 2009

Thursday- Went out w/Coco and spun for an hour.Friday- Drove to Spartanburg w/ Doog, Coco, and Mulo to race. Got there barely in time. No warmup. Started hard, but felt okay. @ halfway, I hit a reflector in the middle of turn two and sketched. I gathered it up in time to hit the feet of the barriers and then get locked together with another guy...did I mention this was dead in the middle of the field? I didn't feel like crashing twice in 27 days, so I dropped out, which was probably good, because 2 laps later, there was a huge pileup in the middle of the field. Doog dragged some guy's bike, sans rider, for a few meters. With 5 to go, Mulo got tangled up with a GlobalBike rider and they both ate it on the front stretch. Mulo smacked his head and tore up his knee and elbow. Doog finished 11th and won a prime.Coco did well in the 2/3 race...pulled the break back by himself and finished 16th. The TIBCO ladies smashed the women's field. It was a clinic on how to race as a team. Brooke showed them clean wheels for the W!On the ride home,we decided, as a group, to bail on Dilworth.Saturday- Doog and Timberlake showed at the house to ride @ 9. No Meat, no Coco, no Mulo...We rolled out towards LR and met RW, SoPro and Rob @ the GMart. Ended with 2.5 hours.I came home and worked in the yard for another 2 hours. I felt progressively worse as the day went on.Sunday- Didn't even bother making the effort to ride. Feel like hammered crap. Thanks to the MTs for paying it forward and giving me whatever crud they both have. I need a nap...